This Just In...

In the Committee of 100's most recent newsletter (Spring 2008), they cited an interesting study looking at personal goals of the American and Chinese general public.The top response for both groups was "to have a happy family". But while 72% of Americans chose this option, only 54% of Chinese did.

15% of Americans said that they wanted "to work on behalf of society," while only 10% of Chinese respondants cited this as a goal.

Perhaps most interestingly, 42% of Chinese chose "to get rich" as a personal goal in life, while only 8% of Americans did so!

The full article has not been posted on line yet, you can see the numbers we took from the article here. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

For more information on the Committee of 100, or to check to see if the Spring newsletter has been posted online, click here.

Earth Day 2008

Today is Earth Day, but CISC celebrated last Saturday by putting together another team to participate in the annual ID Spring Clean Up. This year there were over 450 participants who picked up trash, painted over graffiti, and cleared out weeds and other debris.

Despite chilly weather that sometimes included pounding rain and even hail, our team of staff, board, and volunteers put their backs into it and helped to make our neighborhood just a little bit cleaner and nicer for all of us who work, shop and live here.

Check out this picture of Executive Director, Alaric Bien with the mandible of a ...

thing!

36th Annual Friendship Dinner & Auction

It's that time of year again! Time for CISC's annual Friendship Dinner and Auction.

As you can see, we are busily preparing for the big event. Sunshine Garden Seniors are shown here helping to assemble the invitations. Look for yours in the mail later this week.

And don't forget to mark Saturday, June 7 down on your calendar. It's at the Grand Hyatt this year and promises to be a lot of fun. This year we focus on CISC's early learning activities, Play & Learn groups, bilingual pre-K, early literacy and parenting/caregiver training.

For more information, please contact Kevin Chan at kevinc@cisc-seattle.org or 206-624-5633 x 4117. See you on the 7^th!

Legal Clinics Resume at CISC

Responding to community demand, CISC has been working hard for the last several months to resume our legal clinics after Seattle University decided to shift its focus.

We are pleased to announce that the Asian Bar Association of Washington and UW School of Law students have stepped up and begun providing legal workshops for our community on a regular basis. The first one was last Tuesday and focused on (what else?) taxes!

Other workshops will feature speakers on employment law, tenant rights, small claims court and much more. We are so grateful for this partnership with the ABAW and UW School of Law and all the dedicated volunteers who help to make this vital service happen!

Compassion in Seattle

This past weekend, the Dalai Lama was in town talking about compassion. The 5 day event was sponsored by the Seeds of Compassion, a group focused on nurturing and empowering children, families and communities to be compassionate members of society.

One of the key messages from the event was the role of compassion in raising our children. Without instilling social and emotional learning into families, caregivers and schools, our children have not have the all the tools necessary to function and succeed in their community, in society, and in life.

At CISC, we try to weave compassion into all that we do. With our early learning programs, caregiver trainings, youth activities, and more. We know that research has shown the positive beneficial effects of practicing compassion on physical, mental and spiritual health. We know that children cannot only focus on academics, but must also be nurtured in the social and emotional arenas.

Our hope is that all adults who touch the lives of children will have and use the tools to foster kinder and more compassionate children, communities, and society.

So think about it. What have you done today?

Self Defense and Personal Safety

In our continued efforts to meet emerging community needs, CISC last Thursday held a second workshop on self defense and personal safety for our community members.

This is part of the effort we are taking along with the Seattle Police Department and other community groups in response to the ongoing attacks on Asian American women on Beacon Hill.

This last workshop also offered personal safety alarms that can be attached to your keychain for a fast and easy way to alert all those in the vicinity of danger. These alarms also come with a small but powerful flashlight which is also very useful on a day to day basis.

For more information about personal safety or to request an alarm, which we sell at cost ($10), please call CISC Crime Victims Advocate Alan Lai at 206-624-5633 x 4111.

County Budget

Don't know if you caught the article in the Times on Wednesday, but King County is looking at budget of deficit of $20 million this year, and a whopping $60 million next year. Budget Director Bob Cowan's suggestion for addressing this problem was to "phase out" of certain "lines of business" (all health and human services) by 2011.

This so incensed those of us in the human services community who have been working for the past five years with county officials and staff to try to find solutions to this funding crisis.

It is nothing new, but yet again we are confronted with this problem that will not affect "lines of business", but real people like you and me, our families, friends, and neighbors.

For some community opinions, (including our Executive Director's personal viewpoint) see today's Time's opinion page. Or click here.

Everyday Hero

You hear about them all the time, doing the ordinary things that people do every day. But yesterday, something truly out of the ordinary happened.

CISC office manager and HR coordinator, Nelson Tang, was out in the neighborhood procuring advertisements for the Friendship Dinner and Auction program book (June 7 - mark your calendars!) when he saw a car speeding down the street.

Moving back to the curb, he suddenly noticed someone pushing a baby in a stroller and tried to get the driver to stop. Well, he didn't until it was too late.

Nelson was knocked to the ground, but saved the baby from being crushed. The stroller was damaged, but fortunately, no one was seriously hurt.

The driver of the car, a 16 year old with no license, was still talking to the police when the car's owner arrived and the ambulance took Nelson to the hospital for evaluation.

Thank goodness for quick reactions and quick thinking. Just remember, the next time it could be you!

Teacher Training

As part of the teacher preparation program redesign, the UW Graduate School of Elementary Education has created the Alliance of Community Teachers (ACT) which will be placing prospective elementary teachers in community-based organizations to complement their school-based field experiences.

CISC has been chosen as one of 3 ethnic minority organizations that the school will work with over the next three years.

The goals of the project are to:

1) Build connections between prospective teachers, community organizations and local schools
2) Give prospective teachers opportunities to develop holistic and assets-based view of children and youth
3) Acknowledge education and learning as a process that occurs in multiple contexts and
4) Place students, families, neighborhoods and communities at the center of the teaching and education.

We are very excited about this new partnership and look forward to the impact it will have on the youth and families we serve!

Belgium - Last Thoughts

After a long set of flights back to the US and waiting nearly 48 hours for the luggage to arrive, some final thoughts on our trip to Belgium last week.

We saw and learned so much about Belgian government(s), society, and issues around immigrant integration in such a short time, it is really very hard to come to any sort of conclusions. But there are a couple of things that did become very clear:

#1 Belgium does have the best chocolate in the world (it wasn't all work and no play...)

#2 Their beer is pretty darn good too. Didn't try all 550 kinds, but the ones we had were quite smakelijk!

More seriously, it seems, from what we could glean in one short week, that some of the issues of integration are linked to a perspective that requires immigrants (and their Belgian born offspring, often 2nd and 3rd generation) to make changes to adapt to mainstream society, sometimes giving up critical parts of their identity, while there are few efforts to change in the receiving society to ensure that immigrants are welcome and treated equitably.

There are many wonderful government sponsored programs in place to help immigrants assimilate into their new community.

But we also heard from some of these 2nd and 3rd generation allochtoonen that despite the fact that they were born in Belgium, speak Flemish, French, English and Arabic fluently, are university educated, and gainfully employed, as seems to be required to be considered "integrated" by Belgian society, they still felt less than welcome, still experienced much discrimination, and were overall treated much like second class citizens in many situations.Perhaps it is because Belgium has only recently been confronted with these immigration, religious, and race issues. They have not experienced hundreds of years of slavery and a civil rights movement that raised these questions in the US over 40 years ago.

Of course, we still deal with these issues every day in the US. But it seems that there is also more willingness to talk about them here, to try to work together to figure out solutions. Perhaps it is just a matter of time before Belgium will have its own movement to raise these issues for discussion on a societal level.

We can only hope that one day, decendants of Moroccan, Turkish, and Congolese immigrants can stand up proudly and declare, "Ik ben allochtoon!" and still be treated with the respect and fairness afforded to the autochtoonen (native born white Belgians).

We are looking forward to the Belgian participants' impressions of the United States as half of them visit New York, Atlanta and Denver in May, while the other half come to Washington DC, Detroit, and Seattle in October.

We're wondering how they will see our efforts at integration and what insights they may have into our own confusing system of immigration and immigrant services...

Liège

Today was spent in the French speaking part of Belgium, in the city of Liège. Did you know that Belgium, with a population of 10 million has a total of 6 different parliaments, 3 national languages, and has been without a functioning government for 8 months?

Part of the problem is with the deep divisions between the Flemish and French speaking regions. Something that became evident today as we discussed immigrant children in the education system and at 28%, an unemployment rate more than twice that in the Flemish speaking region.

One noticable difference was the heavier emphasis on diversity and tolerance, with campaigns to resist the extreme right, and emphasizing the richness in diversity.


At a local public high school, we met students from many countries and talked about their experiences and perceptions of living in Belgian society. Here, two girls from Nigeria are pictured with a program participant who also happened to come from the same country.

After lunch at the school, a visit was made to a holocaust museum where we continued to discuss the importance of education in the integration process as well a programs to improve access to higher education and services to promote retention, increase graduation rates, and facilitate successful entry into the labor market.

We had a sobering, private tour of the museum. The holocaust is something most Belgians never want to forget, a good lesson for us all.

Back in Brussels

Did you know the symbol of Brussels is the marsh iris? That's because it grows in swamps and lowlands, like Brussels before urbanization. Now you can impress your friends with your incredible trivia knowledge!


Today, was spent visiting an alternative Flemish vocational school where many of the students are immigrants. The students spend 2 days a week in class and 3 days a week in real life work settings, earning real money. We heard presentations from the Flemish ministry of employment statistics and the federal civil rights office before touring the school and meeting some of the students.

We were treated to a lunch of tradtional Belgian foods by the culinary arts class. It was also their final exam! Carbonnade Flamande, Brussels sprouts, Belgian endives and potatoes au gratin. They also stir fried a yakisoba for us! Yumm!

This boy is one of the students. He came from Mongolia to Belgium on foot when he was only 14. It took a year for him to get here and in the 2 years since, he has thrived. Through a special provision for undocumented minors, he was able to receive his permanent residency just yesterday. Congratulations!!

The afternoon was spent at another agency working with undocumented immigrants. We heard the stories of people from India, Pakistan, and Burundi. Terrible and sad accounts of incredibly resiliant people, who are only looking to work and live and survive in their new adopted country.

Antwerp

Today, Executive Director Alaric Bien spent in Antwerp,
the second largest port in Europe, 45 minutes outside Brussels by train.

There he visited an employment program called WerkVormm, housed on the docks of the city. Because the maritime industries are such a large employer, they focus training on welding for shipping container repair, general harbor maintenance, and catering work.

As you can see in the picture, the entrance to their facility is symbolic of their philosophy: the door is wide, and the threshold is low to enter, but you must be motivated to succeed.

Part of this is requiring trainees to clock in an clock out of work each day, just like in a real job. Coming to work every day on time ensures that clients learn the self-discipline needed to function successfully in the real world.

Here, students are practicing hands-on welding of a shipping container.

And here is one of the boats that are being restored to seaworthiness by students learning maintenance skills. No those are not job trainees, but other exchange participants!

Brussels Continued

Today, Executive Director Alaric Bien spent the morning in meetings at the King Baudouin Foundation, hosts for the Brussels exchange. Discussion focused on the role of religion in immigrant orientation, in addition to women's issues, health care and criminality in youth.

Presentations over lunch addressed the role of the media in the perceptions mainstream Belgians have of immigrants and what can be done to improve the situation. There was spirited debate with multiple points of view expressed from both the Belgian and US participants.

The afternoon spent visiting the municipality of Molenbeek, which has one of the highest concentrations of immigrants in the country. Services provided by a quasi-governmental social service agency were presented as well as an introduction to the Belgian social welfare system.

Later, the group visited Motonge, the center of the African community, which like many places throughout the world is becoming gentrified and losing its unique character. The lively discussion continued over dinner at an African restaurant featuring Congolese cuisine.

Brussels

Executive Director, Alaric Bien, is in Belgium for the week participating in the Belgium-US Cultural Crossing Program, looking at immigrant integration in the two countries. He was one of 12 applicants from the US selected for the program.

Brussels is a city of contrasts, with old coexisting side by side with the new. But this is not limited to the architecture.

Brussels, capital of Belgium, the European Union, NATO and other international organizations is 50% immigrants! One of the issues they are dealing with is how to help new arrivals coexist with the old.

Chinese are a small, but visible community here, with a tiny Chinatown comprised of markets, restaurants and souvenir shops. The majority of Chinese come from Wenzhou 温州 in Zhejiang Province.

One of the most popular restaurants in town is this noodle place with hand pulled noodles. Run by immigrants from Wenzhou, it is interestingly named Au Bon Bol (with the good bowl) in this Flemish speaking part of the country...